Sanitary belt



W. M. JONAS SANITARY BELT Aug. 28, 1962 Filed April 17, 1961 INVENTOR. M44727 A7. Jaw 7.5 BY

ATTOR/VEK vania Filed Apr. 17, 1%1, Ser. No. 103,360 11 Claims. (Cl. 128291) This invention relates generally to a sanitary belt for supporting a catamenial or sanitary pad.

Catamenial or sanitary pads worn by women to absorb menstrual or other discharges are normally formed with fabric extensions at the opposite ends intended to be secured by buckles at the front and back of a supporting belt. The belts now in use for the above purpose usually include a waist encircling member of elasticized Webbing which may have a buckle sewed to one end thereof while the other end is adjustably threaded through such buckle for adjusting the circumference of the belt, and fabric tabs stitched to the front and back of the belt from which they depend and having the front and back buckles intended for gripping engagement with the fabric extensions of the sanitary pad secured to such tabs also by stitching.

It will be apparent that the manufacture of the above described existing sanitary belt involves a relatively large number of operations requiring the expenditure of considerable labor so that such belts must be sold at a price making necessary the repeated use thereof.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a sanitary belt for the described purpose made up of a limited number of easily assembled together components so that the same may be sold at a relatively low cost making it feasible to discard the belt after the use thereof for a limited time.

Further, it is an object of the invention to provide a sanitary belt made up of a limited number of mass produced, inexpensive components that may be easily assembled together by the user so that all assembling costs are avoided by the manufacturer, thereby making possible a further reduction in the selling price.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the foregoing objects are achieved by providing a sanitary belt made up of a length of elastic webbing, and molded, plastic front and back buckles which are assembled together exclusively by the mechanical interengagement of the webbing with the front and back buckles thereby to form the sanitary belt.

Further, the buckles intended for attachment to the fabric extensions of the sanitary pad in the above described existing belts are provided with sharp teeth that dig into the fabric extensions and such sharp teeth can puncture the material of the fabric extensions and weaken the pad at the location of the puncture to result in slippage, loosening or complete disengagement of the pad from the buckles. Further, such buckles of the existing sanitary belts are suitable only for securing a sanitary pad of rather bulky material and cannot be used with a sanitary pad formed of a finer or thinner material which is desirable from a point of view of increasing the comfort to the wearer.

Accordingly, it is a further object of the invention to provide a low cost sanitary belt capable of being assembled by the user from three simple components consisting of a front buckle, a back buckle and a length of elastic webbing, and wherein such front and back buckles overcome the above mentioned disadvantages of the buckles included in the existing sanitary belts.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, each of the front and back buckles of the sanitary belt includes a body portion formed with an opening having 3,051,178 Patented Aug. 28, 1962 side edges that converge downwardly so as to exert a wedging action on the related fabric extension of the sanitary pad when such extension is passed through the opening and pulled downwardly therein, and each buckle further includes prongs extending downwardly and inwardly towards each other from the bottom of the body portion so as to define a slot between the prongs and the body portion adapted to receive the free end of the fabric extension or tab.

In accordance vw'th still another aspect of this invention, the front buckle of the sanitary belt has a generally Y-shaped configuration with the body portion and prongs for attachment to the fabric extension of the sanitary pad being at the bottom of the Y-shaped configuration, while the upwardly diverging arms of the latter are formed with similar body portions and prongs for adjustable gripping engagement with the end portions of the length of elastic webbing, while the back buckle of the sanitary belt has an upper suspension portion integral with the body portion of the buckle and formed merely with parallel, spaced apart slots through which the clastic webbing is threaded.

The above, and other objects, features and advantages of the invention, will be apparent in the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment thereof which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawing forming a part hereof, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sanitary belt embodying the present invention, and "shown with a sanitary pad suspended therefrom;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view of the front buckle of the sanitary belt of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the front buckle;

FIG. 4 is an elevational view of the back buckle of the sanitary belt in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a side view of the back buckle of FIG. 4.

Referring to the drawing in detail, and initially to FIG. 1 thereof, it will be seen that a sanitary belt embodying the present invention, and there generally identified by the reference numeral 10, consists of a single length of elastic webbing 11, a front buckle member 12 and a back buckle member 13 which are assembled together solely by the mechanical engagement of the elastic webbing 11 with the front and back buckle members 12 and 13, as hereinafter described in detail.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the front buckle member 12 has a generally flat, Y-shaped configuration including a lower or stem portion 14 and an upper portion 15 integral with lower portion 14 and having upwardly diverging arms :16.

The lower or stem portion 14, which is intended for attachment to the fabric extension at one end of a sanitary pad, has an opening 17 therein formed with lower side edge portions 18 which are preferably inwardly convex and converge downwardly to define a narrow, downwardly tapering wedge 19' located centrally at the bottom of opening 17. Prongs 20 extend downwardly and inwardly towards each other from the bottom of lower portion 14 bottom of portion 14 and prongs 20. Further, as is apparent in FIG. 2, the lower end edge of portion 14 preferably has edge portions 23 which incline downwardly toward the center and cooperate with the adjacent inner edges 24 of prongs 20 to enclose acutely angled corners at the top of slot 22.

The upper portion 15 of front buckle member 12 has a generally triangular opening 25 therein formed with a top edge 26 and side edges'27 which are preferably inwardly convex and converge in the directions of the arms 16 to define a narrow, outwardly tapering wedge 28 located centrally in each arm 16. Pairs of prongs 29 extend outwardly and inwardly towards each other from the outer endof-each arm 16 so that a small gap 30 normally exists between the free ends of each pair of prongs 29 and a slot 31 is defined between the outer end of each arm 16 and the related pair of prongs -29.

Further, the outer end edge of each arm 16 preferably has edge portions 32 which converge outwardly toward the center and cooperate with the adjacent inner edges 33' of prongs 29 to enclose acutely angled corners-at the inner endsof slots 31.

The front buckle member 12 may be conveniently and economically formed in one piece by injection molding of plastic materials, such as, for example, linear polyethylene, nylon, polypropylene, polyurethane or Delrin, that is, super-polyoxymethylene having a molecular weightof at least-15,000. When the front buckle member 12. is formed by injection molding of such plastic materials,.it is possible to provide the lower portion 14 andupper portion 15 thereof with the rigidity or stiffness necessary for the proper performance of their respective functions, as hereinafter described in detail, while the prongs and 29 can be resiliently flexible for movement realtive to each other out of a common plane in which they normally lie, thereby increasing the size of the gap 21 or the gap 30 between the prongs 20 or 29, respectively, during engagement of the front buckle member 12 with the fabric extension of a sanitary pad and with the free end portions of the elastic webbing 11.

The necessary rigidity and flexibility may be imparted to the portions 14 and 15 and to the prongs 20 and 29, respectively, of the plastic front buckle member 12 merely by forming such parts with relatively large and small thicknesses. Thus, in a specific plastic front buckle member embodying the present invention, it has been found suitable to-provide the portions Hand 15 with a thickness between approximately .050 inch and approximately .060-inch, whereas the prongs 20 and 29 have a thickness of approximately .025 inch.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, it will be seen that the back buckle member 13 also includes a lower portion 34- and an upper portion 35 formed integrally therewith. The lower portion 34- is similar to the lower portion 14 of buckle member 12 and, thus, has an opening 37 therein formed with lower side edge portions 38 which are preferably inwardly convex and converge downwardly to define a narrow, downwardly tapering wedge 39 located centrally at the bottom of opening 37. A pair of prongs 40 extend downwardly and inwardly towards each other from the bottom of lower portion 34 so that a small gap 41 normally exists between the free ends of prongs 40 and a slot 42 is defined between the bottom of body portion 34 and prongs 40. Further, the lower end edge of portion 34 preferably has edge portions 43 which incline downwardly toward the center and cooperate with the adjacent inner edges-44 of prongs 40 to enclose acutely angled corners at the top of slot 42.

The upper portion 35 of back bucklemember 13 is simply in the form of a flat plate having a pair of parallel, spaced apart vertical slots 45 formed therein with the length of the slots 45 being substantially equal to, or only slightly greater than the width of theelastic webbing 11.

As in the caseof-the front buckle member. 12, the back buckle'member 13 may be conveniently and economically formed by injection molding of plastic materials of the kind previously mentioned herein, and, during-such molding of the back buckle member 13, the lower and upper portions 34' and'35 may be given a relatively large thickness, While the prongs 40 are given a relatively small thickness, of the. order of magnitude previously mentioned, so as to impart the necessary rigidity or stiflness andthe necessary flexibility to the-portions-34 and 35 and to the prongs 40, respectively.

In assembling asanitary belt 10 from" the length of elastic webbing 11 and the front and back buckle members '12 and '13, the webbing 11 is" initially threaded through the slots 45 in the upper portion 35 of back buckle member 13 and the latter is substantially centered with respect to the length of the webbing 11. Thereafter, each end portion of the elastic webbing 11 is initially passed through the opening 25 in upper portion 15 of front buckle member 12, entering such opening at the side of the buckle member facing toward the body of the wearer. The free end portion 46 of webbing 11 is then pulled outwardly between the converging edges 26 and 27 of opening 25 so that it is wedged into and tightly gripped within a wedge shaped corner 28 of opening 25. In order to hold the end portion 46 of webbing 11 against release from the wedging action of the corner 28 of opening 25, the free end portion of the webbing is pressed against one of the resiliently flexible prongs 29 in the direction toward the body of the wearer, and thereby flexes the pressed prong 29 out of the plane of the other adjacent prong for increasing the size of the gap 30 between the free ends thereof which permits the free end portion 46 of the webbing to be displaced laterally through the increased gap for entry into the slot 31. When free end portion 46 of the webbing is disposed in slot 31, the pressure on the flexed prong 29 is released and the latter then returns to the same plane as the other adjacent prong 29 so as to close the gap 30 and thereby retain the free end portion of the elastic webbing within the slot 31.

It is to be noted that, when end portion 46 is thus retained within slot 31, as in FIG. 1, the outwardly converging end edge portions 32 of the related arm 16 exert a wedging action on the end portion 46 therein which is opposed to the wedging action of the corner 28 of opening 25. That is, the converging edge portions 32 at the outer end of arm 16 tend to fan out the end portion 46 of the elastic webbing within slot 31 whereby the acutely angled corners. at the inner end of slot 31 exert a wedging action on end portion 46 between the edge portions 32 and the adjacent inner side edges 33 of prongs 29.

It will be apparent that, during the engagement of the end portions of the lengthof elastic webbing 11 with the upper portion 15 of front buckle member 12, in the manner described above, the effective length or circumference of the webbing 11 may be easily adjusted or varied so as to adapt the sanitary belt 10 for use by wearers having different waist dimensions. After the sanitary belt 10 has been assembled from the elastic webbing 11 and the front and back buckle members 12 and 1-3, a sanitary pad 47 (FIG. 1) having fabric extensions 48 and 49 at its front and back ends may be easily suspended from the belt 10 by gripping engagement of the lower portions 14 and 34 of the front and back buckle members with the fabric extensions 48 and 49, respectively. Since the lower portions 14 and 34 of thebuckle members 12 and 13 are similar in configuration, the manner in which the fabric extensions of the sanitary pad are secured to the buckle members will be described only with reference to the securing of the front fabric extension 48 in the lower portion 14 of front buckle member 12.

In securing the fabric extension 48 to the front buckle member 12, the fabric extension is initially passed through the opening 17, entering such opening at the side of the buckle member facing toward the body of the wearer. The free end portion 50 of fabric extension 48 is then pulled downwardly relative to buckle member 12 so that the fabric of extension 48 is wedged tightly in the wedgeshaped corner 19 at the bottom of opening 17. In order to' hold fabric extension 48 against release from the above mentioned" wedging action in opening 17, the free end 0 portion 50 is pressed against one of the resiliently flexible prongs'20 and thereby flexes the pressed prong out of the plane of the other prong 20 so as to increase the size of the gap 2 1 therebetween for permitting entry of end portion 50 of the fabric extension into the slot 22. 5 When free end portion 50 of the fabric extension is disposed within slot 22, the pressure on the flexed prong 20 is released and the latter then returns to the plane of the other prong 20 so as to close the gap 21 and thereby retain end portion 50 within slot 22. When end portion 50 of fabric extension 48 is retained in slot 22, the inclined edge portions 23 at the bottom of lower portion 14 exert a wedging action thereon, that is, tend to fan out the end portion 50 so as to wedge the latter in the acutely angled corners defined between the inclined edge portions 23 and the inner edge surfaces 24 of prongs 20.

It will be apparent that the buckle members 12 and 13 of belt are equally useful with sanitary pads formed of either thin or bulky materials, as the bulk of the fabric extensions 48 and 49 merely determine the extent to which the latter can be pulled downwardly within the wedge-shaped lower parts or corners 19 and 39 of the respective openings 17 and 37. Further, any downward pull on thefabric extensions 48 and 49 merely drives the latter deeper into the downwardly tapering wedgeshaped corners 19 and 39 and thereby increases the security of the attachment of the pad to the buckle members. Since the gripping action of the buckle members 12 and 13 on the fabric extensions 48 and 49 does not depend on the digging of teeth into the latter, as in the conventional buckles used for this purpose, there is no possibility of puncturing the relatively fragile material of the fabric extensions, thereby avoiding the consequent danger of separation of the fabric extensions from the pad at such puncture or slipping of the pad relative to the buckle members.

Since the buckle members 12 and 13 are respectively one-piece parts which can be conveniently injection molded of suitable plastic materials, such components of the belt 10 can obviously be cheaply mass produced, as can the simple single length of elastic webbing 11. Further, since the elastic webbing 11 and buckle members 12 and 13 are simply assembled together by the threading of the webbing 11 through back buckle member 13 and the mechanical gripping engagement of the free end portions of the webbing 11 with the front buckle member 12, all labor consuming, and hence relatively costly sewing operations are eliminated during the assembly of the belt. Further, the simple manner in which the components of the sanitary belt 10 are assembled together makes it feasible to vend the belt in its unassernbled condition with the intention that the user will assemble together the webbing and front and back buckle members, in the manner previously described herein. Such elimination of assembling operations by the manufacturer, as well as the inherent low cost of the several components of the belt makes it possible to sell the latter at a price which is so low as to encourage sales through Vending machines and even the discarding of the belt after a single or limited period of use.

Although an illustrative embodiment of this invention has been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to that precise embodiment, and that various changes and modifications may be effected therein without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention, except as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A sanitary belt consisting of a single elongated elastic member; a one-piece back buckle member including an upper portion having spaced apart slots through which said elastic member is threaded to suspend said back buckle member therefrom and a lower gripping portion adapted to secure one end portion of a sanitary pad to said back buckle member; and a one-piece front buckle member including an upper part having gripping portions at the opposite sides thereof adapted to adjustably secure the end portions of said elastic member to said front buckle member and a lower gripping portion adapted to secure the other end portion of a sanitary pad to said front buckle member; each of said gripping portions including means defining an opening adapted to receive the related end portion to be secured thereby and having a tapering wedge-shaped part into which the related end portion can be drawn for gripping engagement thereby, and means defining a slot adjacent said wedge-shaped part of the opening adapted to receive the end portion after extension of the latter through said opening for preventing inadvertent disengagement of the end portion from said wedge-shaped part of the opening.

2. A sanitary belt consisting of a single elongated elastic member; a one-piece back buckle member including an upper portion having spaced apart slots through which said elastic member is threaded to suspend said back buckle member therefrom and a lower gripping portion adapted to secure one end portion of a sanitary pad to said back buckle member; and a one-piece front buckle member including an upper part having gripping portions at the opposite sides thereof adapted to adjustably secure the end portions of said elastic member to said front buckle member and a lower gripping portion adapted to secure the other end portion of a sanitary pad to said front buckle member; each of said gripping portions including a substantially fiat body having an opening therein adapted to receive the related end portion to be secured thereby and formed with a tapered wedge-shaped part into which said end portion can be drawn for gripping engagement thereby, and resiliently flexible prongs extending from an edge of said body and then towards each other so as to define a slot between said prongs and said edge adapted to receive the related end portion after passage of the latter through said opening, said prongs normally lying in the same plane with a small gap between the free ends thereof which can be increased in size to permit entry and removal of the related end portion into and out of said slot by relative flexing of said prongs out of said plane.

3. A sanitary belt as in claim 2; wherein said edge of the body of each gripping portion cooperates with the adjacent inner edges of said prongs to define acutely angled corners therebetween which are adapted to exert a wedging action on the end portion in said slot.

4. A sanitary belt as in claim 2; wherein each of said front and back buckle members is of molded plastic and said body and prongs of each gripping portion have relatively large and small thicknesses, respectively, so that each body is relaively rigid and the related prongs are relatively flexible.

5. A sanitary belt consisting of a single elongated elastic member; a one-piece back buckle member including an upper portion having spaced apart slots through which said elastic member can be threaded for suspending said back buckle member therefrom, and a lower gripping portion adapted to secure the fabric extension at one end of a sanitary pad to said back buckle member; and a one-piece front buckle member including a lower gripping portion adapted to secure the fabric extension at the other end of the sanitary pad to said front buckle memher, and an upper portion having an opening through which the end portions of said elastic member can pass and formed with tapering wedge-shaped parts into which said end portions can be drawn for wedging engagement by said wedge-shaped parts of the opening, and means extending from the opposite sides of said upper portion to cooperate with the adjacent edges of the latter in defining slots in which the end portions of said elastic member can engage after passing through said opening to retain said end portions in wedging engagement with said Wedge-shaped parts of the opening.

6. A sanitary belt as in claim 5; wherein said means extending from the opposite sides of said upper portion includes a pair of prongs extending from the adjacent edge and then toward each other, said pair of prongs normally lying in the same plane and defining a narrow gap between their free ends which can be increased in size to permit the entry and removal of the related end portion of the elastic member by flexing said prongs relative to each other out of said same plane.

7. A sanitary belt as in claim 6; wherein each of said adjacent edges of the upper portion cooperates with the inner side edges of the related pair of prongs to form acutely angled corners therebetween into which said end portion in the slot is wedged.

8. A sanitary belt as in claim 6; wherein said lower gripping portion of each of said back and front buckle members has an opening therein adapted to receive the related fabric extension of the sanitary pad and formed with a downwardly tapering, wedge-shaped part .into which the fabric extension can be drawn downwardly so as to be gripped therein, and resiliently flexible prongs extending downwardly and inwardly toward each other from the bottom edge of said gripping portion to cooperate with said bottom edge in defining a slot therebetween, said prongs normally lying in the same plane with a small gap between their free ends which can be increased in size, to permit entry and removal of the fabric extension into and out of the slot, by flexing of said prongs relative to each other out of said plane.

9. A one-piece front buckle member for a sanitary belt of the described character; comprising a generally Y- shaped body including an upper portion having upwardly and outwardly diverging arms with an opening in said upper portion having tapering wedge-shaped parts extending into said arms, a pair of resiliently flexible prongs extending from the end of each of said arms and having free ends directed toward each other to define a slot between said end of the arm and said prongs, said prongs lying in the same plane and normally defining a small gap between said free ends, said body further including a lower portion having an opening formed with a tapering, wedge-shaped part at the bottom thereof, and a piar of resiliently flexible prongs extending downwardly and inwardly toward each ohter from the bottom end of said lower portion and normally lying in the same plane to define a slot between said bottom end and said prongs extending therefrom, said prongs extending from said bottom end also normally having a small gap between their free ends.

10. A one-piece front buckle member as in claim 9; wherein said buckle is formed of a molded plastic and said body and prongs are of relatively large and small thickness, respectively, to impart rigidity and flexibility to said body and prongs, respectively.

11. A one-piece front buckle member as in claim 9; wherein each pair of prongs and the adjacent end of said body enclose acute angles therebetween to define wedgeshaped corners for the related slot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,247,373 Chaney Nov. 20, 1917 1,597,188 Gaunt Aug. 24, 1926 1,987,437 Fourness Jan.. 8, 1935 2,064,740 Fontaine' Dec. 15, 1936 

